Our Magazines

A Guest Blog from Antarctica

Photography is about much more than recording a memory; it can also be about discovering your voice.

Last month, I shared photos of Antarctica taken by my friends, Albert B. Knapp, M.D. and his wife, Ruth Oratz, M.D. The photos were from our recent photography expedition to the South Pole organized by Digital Photo Destinations, a company that offers unique travel adventures designed to develop photography skills, and to strengthen personal vision and style. When traveling with other photographers, it's fun to share images of various sights and to see everyone's differing points of view. Digital Photo Destinations leaders, Seth Resnick and John Paul Caponigro, are two artists with very distinct styles. The duo has traveled to all seven-continents together, taking thousands and thousands of photos along the way. To this day, they are still amazed at how different their images can be. After seeing my blogs, they asked if they could also share some of their favorite photos from Antarctica - I was delighted with the idea.

John Paul captured this image as he waited for the moment when all the icebergs separated from one another in a field of light. It was taken in Bransfield Straights, 2005.

Here, Seth selected one iceberg in Bransfield Straits and waited for dramatic light to highlight it. It was also taken in 2005.

This 2014 photo shows how John Paul waited for one iceberg to emerge from another on Detaille Island, Antarctica.

In this version of the same iceberg on Detaille Island, Seth selected the moment where you can see one iceberg through another.

Here, John Paul included the full contour of the arch to illustrate its architectural dimensions. It was taken at Pleneau Bay in 2007.

And here, Seth eliminated the contour to emphasize the graphic pattern made by the reflection. It is a spectacular iceberg in the Iceberg Graveyard. “Iceberg Graveyard” in Pleneau Bay is home to both large tabular icebergs and older, rolled icebergs. The icebergs get caught in the currents and are ushered into ‘the graveyard’. They sit here for months on end, waiting for the summer sun to release them.

In this 2009 photo, John Paul looked up to find a view that metaphorically suggested clouds in The Gullet.

In this image, Seth looked down to find a reflection that distorted the subject into abstraction. The Gullet is north of the Adelaide Islands and Marguerite Bay off the West Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is rarely traveled as it is usually blocked by icebergs and sea ice. This area is known for stunning glacial scenery and large tabular icebergs derived from the Ross Ice Shelf.

In this photo, Seth looked down to see the iceberg descending deep into the waters off Fish Islands in 2009. The Fish Islands are located west of Prospect Point off the western extremity of Graham Island in Antarctica. This area is known for stunning glacial scenery and large tabular icebergs derived from ice shelves in the Bellingshausen Sea. For a sense of scale, the iceberg is rising out of the water about 75 to 100 feet above the surface. Four-fifths of the iceberg is below the surface so the blue plunging down is at least 300-feet beneath the water.

Here, John Paul looked above the ice to show the larger environment.

John Paul framed this arch straight on to show the full space and the flat wall of texture surrounding it. It is a photo from Pleneau Bay taken in 2014.

Seth framed the arch at an acute angle that almost closed it using over-lapping planes to create depth.

In this photo, Seth photographed these penguins to find a story and give scale to the massive blue iceberg. The image was shot at the Aitcho Islands – a group of minor islands in the north entrance to the English Strait separating Greenwich Island and Robert Island in the South Shetland Islands. This was taken during Seth’s first trip to Antarctica. He looked out into the harbor and drifting towards him was this magnificent blue iceberg. He headed off in a Zodiac to get a better look and when he got there he noticed the penguins walking across the top.

John Paul waited for the penguins to swim away so the focus would be the sculptural form of the iceberg.

Here, Seth reacted quickly to capture the drama of a surfacing whale tail off Torgerson Island in 2009 – a small rocky island lying just east of Litchfield Island in the entrance to Arthur Harbor, off the southwest coast of Anvers Island in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica.

In contrast, John Paul waited to show the disappearance of the whale and what it left behind.

Seth framed a figure eight arch within another arch in this image at Pleneau Bay earlier this year.

John Paul used an hour glass arch to frame another iceberg within it. This photo was also taken earlier this year.

Here, John Paul showed the way the color of an intensely blue iceberg reflected color into its surroundings off Detaille Island.

Seth showed the way a richly colored iceberg held light within its abstract details.

In this photo, John Paul showed the structure of a glacier ready to collapse.

Seth waited for the moment the glacier calved to freeze a dramatic moment that was gone in the blink of an eye. The headwall then collapsed into the ocean off of Danco Island, Antarctica.

Seth captured the dramatic moment the light broke through the lifting fog in Black Head, 2017.

In this photo, Seth showed the weathering patterns of melting ice above and below the waterline. It is from Port Lockroy in Neko Harbor, an inlet on the Antarctic Peninsula on Andvord Bay, situated on the west coast of Graham Land. Neko Harbor was discovered by Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache in the early 20th century. It was named for a Norwegian whaling boat, the Neko, which operated in the area between 1911 and 1924.

And in this photo, John Paul photographed the relationships between small pieces of ice breaking off larger pieces in Port Lockroy, 2013.

John Paul captured a large field of color including a tiny mountain to give it scale in the Lemaire Channel, 2005.

And Seth captured the color of the sky distorted in the rhythmic pattern of waves created by the passing ship along the Lemaire Channel, 2005. Here, there are spectacular sunsets with vistas of sheet ice, glaciers, icebergs and so much wildlife.